The party base has pretty much decided that Joe Lieberman qualifies for that category. There are other names for them, like "Vichy Democrats". Lieberman's voting record is pretty liberal. But the thing that drove so many Democrats over the edge with him was his habit of going on the talk shows and concentrating on bashing Democrats. The fact that he often did so in defending the Cheney-Bush policies on the Iraq War made it that much worse. And because he neglected constituent contact and services in Connecticut, he's looking at possibly losing the Democratic nomination for Senate to Ned Lamont this coming Tuesday.
Lieberman contributed on of the all-time-classic DINO lines to the history of that phenomenon:
It is time for Democrats who distrust President Bush to acknowledge that he will be Commander-in-Chief for three more critical years, and that in matters of war, we undermine Presidential credibility at our nation’s peril. (See Lieberman Tells Democrats to STFU About President Bush Crooks and Liars 07/12/06
Lieberman has become the Republicans favorite Democrat, as illustrated by this video collection made available by the General in Yellow Elephants for Joe 08/04/06.
In some ways, Lieberman may be the archetype of the New DINOs. For many decades, the Democratic Party was split between a liberal wing and a conservative one, the latter being centered in the South. This split, of course, went back to the Civil War. So it wasn't unusual for the Southern Dems to vote with Republicans on military issues. And it was the Southern Dems who were the main opponent of civil rights legislation.
I don't want to overdraw the "New DINO" distinction. Henry Jackson was the liberal Senator from Washington state who was the hero - and direct mentor in some cases - of today's "neoconservatives". He was so hawkish that Richard Nixon explored the idea with him of appointing him Secretary of Defense. But he declined when Ted Kennedy let him know that if he became SecDef, the Dems would make the Senate hell for him. But Jackson was a Northern liberal.
Up into the 1970s, there was also a small but significant contingent of "liberal Republicans", strange as that may sound today. As late as 1974, when Gerald Ford picked Nelson Rockefeller as his Vice President, the Reaganauts of his party were in a panic that The Liberals were about to seize control.
Those days are gone. Even the notion of "moderate" Republican has become largely meaningless. Maverick McCain has one of the most conservative voting records in the Senate and is humbly kissing up to the hardliners of the Christian Right. Arlen Spector, another "moderate", is offering a bill that would legalize the Cheney-Bush program of warrantless spying on US citizens.
So, today's partisan line-up no longer has the old liberal-conservative split overlapping the parties as it once did. So today's DINOs have a different function than they did in the 1960s. The Dems' Southern conservative wing no longer exists, though there are a few scattered exceptions. Zell Miller with his ranting speech at the 2004 Republican Party convention, in which he seemed to be outraged that his own Democratic was even considering putting up a candidate for the Presidency against "our Commander-in-Chief", was an hysterical caricature of the old Southern Democrats.
But Zell was a throwback. Conservative Southern whites, many of whom could rightly be called "neosegregationists", now loyally vote Republican. Forty years ago, the Tom DeLays and Newt Gingrinches of the world were Southern Democrats. In many ways, today's national Republican Party is the direct descendant of the segregationist Southern wing of the Democratic Party of the 1960s.
Today's San Francisco Chronicle carries an op-ed piece by another New DINO, San Jose's former mayor, Tom McEnery. McEnery is from a wealthy local family and served two terms as a popular mayor in heavily Democratic San Jose. The San Jose Mercury News once did a front-page profile of him as the most powerful mayor in California, largely based on his highly-visible and aggressive redevelopment program.
He was once considered as a possible Senate candidate. But he wound up running for the Democratic nomination for a Congressional seat against Zoe Lofgren, and lost. He had taken to sounding more critical of the Democratic Party long before now. Today's Chronicle piece is classic DINO: The Democrats' lost opportunity 08/06/06. Reminding us that he's (a Democrat, his op-ed heaps praise on Republican Gov. Schwarzeneggr and ridicules Phil Angelides, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate for the November election.
One of the telltale signs of a DINO pitch is a "process" argument which reflects Republican talking points. As in, the Democrats need to convince voters they can talk to people of faith and not be subservient to stark, raving atheists the way we have been.
McEnery takes that approach to the governor's race. Alleged Democrat McEnery doesn't seem to find anything good at all about Angelides. He starts out saying that the guy's a loser. Then he tells us that Angelides is just another tax-and-spend Democrat. Here's the DINO framing:
Angelides now finds himself on a larger stage before a bigger audience, and with the opportunity to tell voters who he is and what he stands for. As the nominated challenger, he also has a chance to reach out to new audiences and tap their votes. He can impress people with new ideas. Yet, Angelides has impressed few; his recycled, hackneyed ideas illustrate that he is not the kind of leader that a state as large and diverse as California deserves. And the more voters are exposed to who Angelides is, the less they like what they see.
Californians - and Democrats in particular - simply are not buying into Angelides' campaign and his $10 billion-and-climbing tax-increase plan. What's more, there are many good reasons for Democrats to support incumbent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger's job-approval numbers keep climbing. He has an impressive record on the environment, he supports small businesses and entrepreneurs and he strongly supports keeping violent criminals in jail. As mayor of a major city for eight years, I know these core positions are important to voters. They also are issues that appeal to many Democrats, like me, who are willing to cross party lines, if it is necessary to elect the best candidate. (DINO alerts bolded)
Dang, was it really that humiliating to lose to Zoe Lofgren years ago?
Maybe McEnery should give it another shot. Only this time run as a Republican, since he thinks their party holds "core positions [that] are important to voters".
Schwarzenegger is ahead in the most recent poll I've seen. And it's largely because he has been trying to look as little like a Republican as possible for the last few months. In an environment where the Republican candidate is trying to look like a "Democrat lite", only a DINO would be trashing the Democratic candidate for not being a Republican-lite.
For a far more realistic view of the governor's race, see this article by a political columnist who's not focused on shilling for the Republican candidate: Angelides playing catch-up in what could be close election by Dan Walters Sacramento Bee 08/06/06.
